Andy Warhol: Brillo Boxes

With their bold red and blue lettering, Andy Warhol’s Brillo Boxes are exact replicas of the popular soap pad product of the 1950s. It was no surprise that Warhol chose Brillo—one of the country’s most recognizable household brands—when he began producing works featuring iconic product labels in the 1960s. Warhol hired multiple assistants and made dozens of sculptures at a time, using plywood and silkscreen ink to mimic the commercial manufacturing of actual cardboard Brillo boxes. For their first exhibition at Stable Gallery in 1964, the Brillo Boxes were stacked around the gallery like supermarket displays. Warhol envisioned dozens of gallery-goers carrying out his Brillo Boxes as if they were on a grocery run. Although his vision didn’t quite pan out at the time, Brillo Box is now one of Warhol’s most iconic works—fetching over $3 million at auction in 2010.